On Board the Carnival Victory: The Search for Cheap Internet Access

Before we embarked on the cruise, we went around putting notices on Facebook and Twitter that we will be incognito for 8 days, because we had heard that internet on the cruise is pretty expensive.

A few days later, one of my primary school friends remarked that we can't seem to stay offline, and that if SHE were traveling, she would have really been quite unreachable.

Ah well, she didn't have an email interview with the Straits Times to look forward to. We did!

But honestly speaking, we really did have a hard time staying offline, so every port of call we made, we made it with our laptops in our backpacks.

Here are some details that may be useful to others who may eventually take the same cruise as we did!

In Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas
Our quest for internet connection in the ports of call instead of on board the ship started really well. Once we disembarked, we went through the shophouses that encircle the dock and went to the main road. Right across the main road was a standalone building called The Fiesta.

Searching for signal...

The Fiesta does most of its business as a place for Filipinos to buy phone cards and call home. It's secondary business is that of a cafe. For those who bring in their own laptops, you can get unlimited WiFi at USD 2 each. Just bring your laptop to the shop owner to key in the password, and you're set!


In Roseau, Dominica
Like St Thomas, Dominica seems to have sprung a small town to support the appetites of cruise tourists. Just stroll into Roseau, along the waterfront, and you have a few choices of internet cafes.

We had first gone into the coffee chain Rituals Coffee, because the waitress said that there was free internet as long as you buy some food or a drink. Though we were already stuffed from the buffets on the ship, we did need a drink, so we accepted the offer. Unfortunately, it was only after we had paid for the drink that the waitress said that they had run out of passwords for their internet. A guy comes to their shop every day with new randomly generated passwords, but he was sick today, she said. Ah well.

You can surf on their icky computer and play pool on their aged tables, but we didn't

We went on to a cafe next door and got our WiFi for at USD 4 for the price of one password, half day use.


In Bridgetown, Barbados
The dock at Bridgetown is pretty far removed from the town. You could either use an internet station at the dock for USD 5 per half hour, but we decided to head into town. A taxi ride to town costs USD 2 per person, per way.

But what we found when we reached town was pretty horrible. There were shops selling gold, clothes, toys (those masak-masak kind) but not a single shop that offered internet services! Shocking. We walked along 2 or 3 streets, going into some of their malls (which was really a building with a long narrow corridor and shops on both sides, mostly closed) but to no avail.

We were just about to give up when we saw this innocous sign at a traffic junction, saying 'Internet Access'. We went right to the sign, and looked up and down, left and right and all around, but did not see any internet cafes or anything. Strange.

Ah well, I whipped out my iPod to see if there was a network available, and voila! There it was!

We almost expected to find a Wireless@BD SSID...

We both quickly checked our emails and facebook accounts while standing right at the corner. But it was not satisfying enough. Besides, I was all primed to post a blog entry on that day too, and did not want to lose my muse.

Stepping back, I studied the building carefully, just like a good Jedi. Then, I noticed something that we missed before. In one of the ground level shops, there was a stairway tucked to the side, with some signs that indicated that other shops were available upstairs! Whoo hoo!

We scooted upstairs and found the shop offering WiFi services, only to be quoted USD 2 per 10 minutes. WTF?!?!

Mumbling and grumbling, we decided to risk a trip to the Dark Side. We hid on the stairs next to the shop and continued using their unsecured network. DuH.

Don't disturb. I'm telling the world about traveling in the USA

It wasn't the most comfortable of places, though. Dirty as a stairs would be, with people walking up and down periodically. But I did finish my blog entry on that day, so all's good.

The cruisers after us might wish to consider taking a taxi to the beach instead, where there -may- be internet cafes. Just don't bother going into town!


In Castries, St Lucia
With the aforementioned email interviews and follow-up questions cleared in Dominica and Barbados, we told ourselves that we would only go online at St Lucia for awhile, just to clear mails - nothing heavy.

We had to take a water taxi to town across from where the Carnival Victory was berthed. Walked through the so-called Visitor's Centre and we found a small yellow building across the street, with a shop named The Business Centre.

Internet rates were USD 2 per half hour. That's alright, we told ourselves. We should be done by then! So we agreed. Next thing we knew, with all the emails, comments to reply, Facebooking and for me, MyBruting, one hour was up!

Ended up paying USD 8 for the use of internet. Can you see how our costs just escalate? :p


In St John's, Antigua
We were greeted by a welcome sign the moment we got off the gangway onto the dock at St John's.

Mai tu liao!

We followed the arrow (lead us to slave traders we also dunno) and came to a bar. Okay, great! We picked a table and plonked our stuff into a chair, prepared to order a drink so as to be 'allowed' to go online.

But I guess that the bartender really doesn't take well to stinginess. He gruffly told us that the tables were for customers who were ordering food. Those who were only ordering drinks had to go to the bar, under his watchful eye. Fine, we went, and maybe just out of spite (the Dark Side is seductive), decided to order one drink to share instead of two.

Too bad her laptop can't be charged up with a megawatt smile

But, like I said, stinginess is probably not appreciated here. When the wife wanted to plug in her laptop to the power socket, the bartender told her that our purchases do not qualify us to use his electricity! Bleah.

Since my laptop battery was still going strong, I let the wife use my laptop when I was done. A preview of the disaster to follow, perhaps?


In Basseterre, St Kitts & Nevis
We got off the ship at Basseterre and went under the archway that identified Port Zante. I guess there were many more cruisers who were familiar with the place, because all along the sides of the walls, we could see people on laptops, some even plugged in for electricity!

Disdaining to sit in such a musty, dusty place, we decided to take a walk around town first to see if there were any other options. After all, we have already whet our appetites for free internet...

There is a tour company simply named 'The Tour Shop" right outside Port Zante, that offers internet on its premises. I think it was around USD 6 per half hour, but again, on an unsecured network. With nowhere to hide and secretly go online, we quickly just checked our mails on our iPhone/iPod and moved on.

Just beyond the main throughfare, we found a restaurant that offered free internet as long as you purchase something. Again, fair enough. We bought a couple of drinks and conch fritters and settled down to make our presences felt by our friends in Singapore and elsewhere again.

I was halfway through this post when the connection dropped completely. It's a good thing that there were a couple of other unsecured networks nearby that I could use!

Argh! I lost the network!

Unfortunately, we can't remember the name of the restaurant, but the directions are pretty simple. At the eleven o'clock direction from Port Zante, there is a circus (in the USA, they call it a rotary) called, well, The Circus. The restaurant is at the one o'clock point of the circus. It's a small entrance, and you need to head up to the second floor to find the restaurants and bar proper.

And... that's it! Our budget guide to good internet services while you are on the Carnival Victory! Of course, the opportunity cost is that sometimes, you end up missing some of the sights that others are going for, but with the costs of these shore excursions, I think we were quite happy.

In total, we spent less than USD 30 going online during this cruise. Considering that the Carnival Victory charges USD 0.40 to USD 0.75 per minute, depending on the plan you sign up for (don't forget that internet on the ship is via satellite, and is very slow!), I think we did pretty great!

Oh, and this entry is also the last of the 'On Board the Carnival Victory' series. Next post, new destination!

On Board the Carnival Victory: Pirates of the Caribbean

I remember when I was working in MAS, in the Organising Secretariat for the Singapore 2006 IMF & World Bank Annual Meeting, we would receive RSVPs from various governors and Heads of State in response to the social events that we were organising in conjunction with the main meetings. There were a few names from exotic-sounding countries like St Thomas and St Kitts & Nevis. I knew little else about these tiny nations, other than the fact that they were part of the Caribbean. My mind would draw a total blank when I tried to picture their location on the world map.

So the thought of visiting a string of these exotic Caribbean isles proved very exciting to us indeed. Out of the 7 cruise destinations that we covered, we had a couple of favourite ports-of-call while others didn't quite appeal to us very much. This is going to be a picture-book entry. Mainly because writing about 7 places in detail in a single entry is going to keep me up all night. And also, having more pictures goes to prove that we did more on the cruise than check out the buffets.

1. San Juan, Puerto Rico

Dan's done a pretty detailed recap of our day exploring the city like a couple of wet dogs. Thankfully the weather cleared up in the evening and we got a view of the waterfront looking quite pretty in the night.

View from our ship, looking over at the Royal Caribbean vessel docked next to us

2. Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas

We woke up to a beautiful view of St Thomas. Pretty white houses capped with red roofs dotted the hills throughout. Little white yachts bobbed gently on the still waters of the harbour. Simply serene.

A picture of serenity that can still and quieten the most frantic heartbeat

We wandered around the shops a bit but didn't find anything to our liking or budget. There was a cable car ride to a viewpoint on the hill but we didn't go on it because:

(i) it was a gloomy, cloudy day - not the best for photography;

(ii) we had a pretty good view of St Thomas from the ship deck already;

(iii) we were quite fanatical about keeping our spending to the bare minimum after suffering some hard-to-swallow damage in the Bahamas and Puerto Rico; and

(iv) we were quite happy sitting in a Philippino Internet cafe under a speaker blasting songs from the late King of Pop and being amused at the sight of a bustling Philippino community on this tiny faraway isle.

Staying grounded in St Thomas, which has a rather pretty and colourful dockside scene

3. Roseau, Dominica

This is my favourite port-of-call. I loved the riot of colours splashed all over town - buildings in candy hues and old school murals depicting ketchup bottles and tins of luncheon meat (yes, that makes pretty good public art!) It was bloody hot walking around while lugging our laptops and cameras, and my blistered feet (thanks to the awfully long road march to Old San Juan the day before) were protesting like mad, but it was hard to tear ourselves away, even though we were absolutely dying for the air-conditioned comfort of the ship.

For charming the socks off us, Dominca gets the most number of photos in this entry.

Yup, it's true that Chinese food finds its way into every corner of the planet

Who needs to take out advertisements in the papers when you can just paint on the wall?

I love how they even painted half the packet of baking on the window pane, so that the picture looks complete even with the window open.

Maggi brand is really popular here! It's on walls, umbrellas, everything.

Making a big BIG statement

Only the stone facade was left of this old broken-down house. I hope the new owner preserves it.

Still smiling pretty even though I made him pose with this frightfully girly pastel combination of purple, cream and grey.

I love the stone facade and mosiac border on this wall. Man, I even like the swirly patten on the wooden board!

Fruit juice stand against a backdrop of green, red and yellow - a popular colour combination in the Caribbean.

Red, yellow and green combi again at the market place

Checking out the roadside stall selling pirated movies - a luxury we Singaporeans no longer have

Designed to make you thirsty

3. Bridgetown, Barbados

Barbados turned out to be a total disappointment. Maybe it was because we didn't head for the beach like everyone else. Yes, there ARE days when we really don't feel like being at the beach. Mostly cos we are too stingy to rent an umbrella (ever since we had to leave our K-Mart one behind in Miami) and it's sometimes hard to enjoy the beach without an ounce of shade.

We found Bridgetown messy, chaotic, un-pretty and totally charmless, and ended up trudging around town, seeking out unsecured WiFi networks to tap into. Even if it meant sitting on the hard dirty floor in a secret stairway until our butts turned blue from the lack of circulation (see Dan's upcoming entry.)

Excited at being in Barbados...

... but bored to the bones in Bridgetown

4. Castries, St Lucia

We found our way to Reduit Beach after navigating a puzzle comprising narrow city streets and a busy bus terminal, and doing some guesswork as to where we were suppose to get off the bus. We thought that we would finally have a chance to put our new US$5 snorkels to good use but the water proved too murky for us to see much, except for some fishy shapes at shallower depths.

Grilling in the full blast of the sun cos we're too ngiao to pay for an unbrella

Does anyone remember this cartoon from the '80s called The Snorkels?

Waiting for the spit in my mask to dry. It may sound gross but it keeps your mask from fogging up.

5. St John's, Antigua

Oleks, one of the waiters onboard the ship, told us that Antigua was a great beach destination with more than 365 beaches on the island - a beach for each day of the year! A cab driver approached us at the pier, offering to take us to Dickenson Bay for US$10 each way. We weighed convenience against price, opted for the lazy way and hopped on. Less than 10 minutes later, we found ourselves on a touristy patch of sand, dotted with other cruise passengers lolling around on their Carnival Cruises beach towels. As with all other touristy beaches, Dickenson Bay was teeming with vendors hawking banana boat rides, jetskis, handicrafts, etc. A little too crowded for our liking, but it made for a pleasant enough afternoon in Antigua.

Quiet time - in between being approached to buy grass hats, shell necklaces and beads

Pretty blue waters, but not clear enough for snorkelling

6. Basseterre, St Kitts & Nevis

Along with Roseau, we liked Basseterre for its colourful buildings and colonial charm. We settled down to a very simple afternoon programme which involved people-watching from an open-air balcony, WiFi, conch fritters and iced tea. On the way back to the ship, we chanced upon a small park and made a small detour to gawk at a brilliant Flame of the Forest tree in full bloom and to play in fire-engine red phone booths.

Striding through the streets of Basseterre

Watching the world go by at the main roundabout in town...

... from a cheery colourful cafe.

The only time we paid for a meal while on the cruise - conch fritters. A Caribbean specialty. In my opinion - all air (literally) and nothing to shout about

Under the Sea! (literally) Hee hee :P

The sky on fire

Paying homage to the Travellers Palm - in hope that we will be able to carry our year-long trip to full term

And that puts a wrap to our jaunt around the Caribbean. Unfortunately, we didn't get to fulfil our Kokomo Dream - Aruba, Jamaica, Bermuda and Monserrat were out of our reach this time. We'll just have to put our exploration of the Caribbean Sea on hold for now and come back when we're a bit richer. Maybe in 10 years time, maybe 20, maybe even more. Who knows? But in the meantime, the Kokomo Dream lives on inside us.

"There's a place called Kokomo, that's where we want to go to get away from it all...."